Family Adventures: Our Family Trip to Cayo Coco

January in Ottawa is a pretty cold time of year. So this year we decided to book our vacation time a little earlier than usual and the four of us travelled to Cayo Coco, Cuba!

It was a trip of many firsts:

the first flight for the girls
our first time in Cayo Coco
the first time we screwed up vacation dates (I’ll get to this later)

The girls absolutely loved the flight. It was made more fun by the discovery of the airplane bathroom, which we visited about 5 times on our way to Cayo Coco.

We were really concerned that Rosie would have a hard time as she’s sensitive to a lot of noise, but she was a rockstar and clapped and laughed when we landed.

The Resort

Upon arrival we boarded the bus to our resort; Memories Flamenco Resort which is located about 20 minutes from the airport. Airport proximity was key in choosing our vacation locale.

The resort is moderately sized with a beautiful beach, 2 pools plus a splash pool, buffet and 3 a la carte restaurants. Apparently several years ago the beachfront was expanded, so we were actually surprised at how large it was. But, as our kids would have it, the pool was our swimming spot of choice, so we spent most of our time there.

The Food

If you’ve never been to a Cuban resort it might be a bit of a shock. The sunshine, atmosphere and staff are genuinely wonderful.

The food, depending on resort, can range from palatable to downright gross. Our resort was somewhere in between and all I wanted when I got home was fresh vegetables and fruit. We survived mostly on omelettes, rice and grilled fish or meat, which sometimes took up to 20 minutes in line waiting to be grilled.

The Rooms

The rooms were sparse and not well stocked. Our beds were slightly larger than twin sized and we’d often have to hide the only roll of toilet paper to make sure an extra one was put in our room when it was cleaned. The best part of the rooms were the elaborate towel displays we’d come back to every day.

Thinking of a family vacation? You’ll want to read this post before booking!

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When we booked our vacation we assumed we had booked a 7 day vacation, but on our 5th day, as we headed back for afternoon naps, the maid told us she thought we were supposed to be checked out. Turns out she was right and we were to be on the plane flying out 6 hours later. Whoops!

It was like the universe had our back! If she wasn’t there at that time we would have never known and completely missed our flight home. Although a bit shocked at first, Chris and I had had our fill of sunshine and weren’t completely disappointed that we had to go home.

All in all, the trip wasn’t our best but there were definitely some great highlights: